Sunday, December 27, 2009

NCRI - The Iranian Resistance strongly condemns bloody suppression of defenseless people in Sirjan, central Iran, which has left dozens killed or wounded and calls for an international probe.

On Tuesday, December 22, the scene of a public hanging of two prisoners, Esmail Fathi-Zadeh and Mohammad Esfandiarpoor, in Sirjan turned into a confrontation between protesting people and the suppressive forces. Local residents and families of the two prisoners confronted the suppressive forces by hurling stones and chanting slogans.

During the clashes yesterday morning, people took advantage of the chaos and removed the prisoners from the scene set up for their hangings. According to earlier reports on Tuesday, one of the prisoners was thought to have been killed.

Having lost the control of the situation, the suppressive forces mobilized more of their agents across the city and re-captured the two prisoners and brought them back to the hanging ropes.

Local residents were angered by the regime’s henchmen and became more fierce in their protest against the hangings. In fear of the escalation of unrest, the suppressive forces opened fire on defenseless people killing at least five and dozens more were wounded. A number of the wounded were taken to hospitals in Kerman, the provincial capital. Some of the wounded are in critical state. A group of local residents and families of the two have been arrested. During the clashes, a number of vehicles belonging to the suppressive forces were set on fire.

The intelligence agents were deployed at the entry points to the city to control the traffic and helicopters were hovering over the city and the main roads to monitor the situation.

The Iranian Resistance calls on all international human rights organizations, in particular the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, to condemn deteriorating human rights situation in Iran and dispatch an international fact finding mission to probe the bloody suppression in Sirjan.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of IranDecember 23, 2009